RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Mag­got-in­fest­ed sewage con­tin­ues to flow through res­i­dents' prop­er­ties at Mon Re­pos, caus­ing sev­er­al pen­sion­ers and chil­dren to fall sick.

It's been three weeks since the sewage has been run­ning through the yards of three pen­sion­ers and along the road­side drain at Smith Street, Mon Re­pos.

When the Guardian vis­it­ed the scene, pools of stag­nant sewage could be seen near the pen­sion­ers' over­grown flower gar­dens.

Res­i­dent Leno­ra In­nis said she has no choice but to stay in­side her home as she could not bear the stench.

"I can­not open the win­dow, the smell is over­pow­er­ing. I can­not come in my yard to take care of my plants," she said. 

With mag­gots crawl­ing all over the yard, In­nis said her life has be­come mis­er­able.

"The sewage wa­ter is just back­ing up. Noth­ing else is hap­pen­ing even though we com­plained to HDC about it," she said.

Neigh­bour Cyn­thia Humprey said her throat and chest has been burn­ing be­cause of the smell.

With the as­sis­tance of her coun­cil­lor Nigel Cout­ti­er, Humphrey placed three sheets of gal­va­nize to walk over the filth to get to her house.

"This is not healthy for me, there's worms com­ing in. The HDC say they have to get a con­trac­tor to deal with this but its been three weeks now we suf­fer­ing," Humprey said.

She added: "I buy so many things here for this smell, vine­gar, dis­in­fec­tant, Pinesol but it get­ting worse. I shouldn't be go­ing through this," Humpre­hy said.

She praised Cout­ti­er who has been com­ing with a vol­un­teer team to clean the yards.

"This is mad­ness, it is an emer­gency. y and it should be dealt with as a pri­or­i­ty," she added. She al­so said the wa­ter and sewage flow could un­der­mine her prop­er­ty if it is not ad­dressed.

Mean­while, Cout­ti­er said Smith Street was not the on­ly place with sew­er prob­lems.

"As we speak there is a sew­er prob­lem in Bernard Street, Up­per Hill­side is al­so af­fect­ed by sew­er but in this area, it is the worst I have seen be­cause it is di­rect­ly af­fect­ing these res­i­dents," he said.

He not­ed that HDC has some old clay lines that need to be re­placed soon.
"HDC is aware of it and we are in con­tact. The last thing I was told was it is go­ing out for ten­der. The whole of Mon Re­pos has aged in­fra­struc­ture. The sew­er lines in Mon Re­pos/ Navet must be re­placed," he added.

Ef­forts to con­tact Hous­ing Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is proved fu­tile as calls and mes­sages left for her went unan­swered.